The Green PC

Global warming is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, which trap heat so it can't escape the atmosphere. Although cars, factories and power plants do most of the damage, the computer is at least partly to blame. A PC uses 200 to 400 watts, depending on its configuration and use. By comparison, a refrigerator uses about 725 watts, but a DVD player uses only 25 watts, and your TV is right around 100 watts. A high-performance gaming rig with a powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, a flash memory reader, and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts! Leave such a beast running constantly and you might see an extra $40 to $50 on your monthly electrical bill. Ouch.

Yet PC energy consumption is only part of the problem. The manufacturing process for computer parts also has an effect. The typical computer these days contains significant amounts of lead, which is used in soldering motherboards, processors, and other parts. Since the average lifespan of a PC is just three yearsaccording to the EPAthe toxic effects of disposal are quite high.

In Europe, regulations for lead-free computing such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), are designed to reduce the effects of hazardous waste. Yet many U.S. PC makers have all but ignored the problem.

That's where you can help. Building a green PC means you can be part of the solution by using all lead-free parts that are also more energy-efficient.

A Green Power Supply?

Even the most hardcore DIY PC enthusiast may still be surprised to learn that the power supplies in most computers (PSUs for short) aren't designed for energy efficiency. In fact, most computers drain more power than they need during normal operation, leading to higher electrical bills and a more dire environmental impact.

The 80 Plus program (www.80plus.org) is a voluntary certification system for power-supply manufacturers. The term "80 Plus" is a little complicated, so bear with me for a moment. If a PSU meets the certification, it will use only the power it needs at a given load: In other words, it won't use more power than it needs. For example, if your PC requires only 20 percent of the total power of a 500-watt PSU, the system will consume no more than 100 watts. Only when the PC requires full power will the PSU run at the full wattage load.

It's a little like that highly efficient furnace in your home: Instead of just operating at full capacity, an efficient furnace will throttle itself to heat your house using as little power as possible, with no overheating. Older furnaces just push out constant heat to keep you warm in December.

An 80 Plus power supply can save about 85 kilowatt-hours per PC, per year. In many ways, it's the heart of a green PC, since it manages the power for all the other components. It also has the most dramatic effect on your energy bill. Of course, all 80 Plus power supplies are also lead-free and RoHS-compliant.

I chose the Sea Sonic S12 Energy Plus 650 power supply (www.seasonic.com), an 80 Plus-certified product that runs quietly. In addition, it complies with the ATX 12V and EPS 12V specifications, which also address the issue of power draw. The 650 uses only the power it needs, unlike older PSUs that manage power less efficiently; an inefficient 500-watt PSU typically drains more than 500 watts of power. Worth noting is that the 650 has all the connections I need for SATA and IDE drives and uses a large underside fan for extra CPU cooling. There are some power supplies out there that draw less power but the 650 gives you the option to grow in the future. It's a heavy bugger; at 6 pounds, it weighs almost as much as a computer case, but I can live with that if it means the Earth is happier!

Greener, Leaner Components

The green PC uses all lead-free components, starting with the Antec SOLO case. Made mostly from plastics, this light-as-a-pillow case uses the ATX form factor, but the Intel DG965SS motherboard fits into it just fine. In fact, there's an added benefit to using microATX components in an ATX case: The airflow is just a notch better, letting me set the adjustable-rate case fan on the slowest speed without any worries about the CPU overheating.

I installed a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB SATA hard drive, for two reasons. First, this single-platter drive uses less energy than a two-platter drive would. And second, SATA uses slightly less energy than IDE. The 7200.10 drive is lead-free, of course, and smaller, so it will leave less hazardous waste when it's thrown out. Next year, both Samsung and Seagate will introduce new drives with more power-saving features, cycling down faster when not in use. They'll be more energy-efficient, too. If you've got the money, upgrade your green PC with a better drive once they are released.

The Sony DRU-830A DVD drive was my top pick for optical storage and playback, mostly because this dual-format burner let me get away with just one optical drive. It consumes a little more energy (just a few watts) than a SATA drive, but you can write both DVD-R and DVD+R discs, as well as CDs, and it's lead-free. For RAM, the system gets two 1GB Crucial DDR2 modules. I debated using just one module, which would use slightly less energy and is certainly possible with the DG965SS motherboard, but decided that would reduce performance too much and make the system less useful.

Finally, I used a trendy Thermaltake Big Typhoon heat sink and fan combo, which looks like a souped-up motorcycle engine. Once again, it's all lead-free, and I wanted to make sure this PC never stuttered or faltered. Also, unlike some Zalman fans I've tried, the Big Typhoon really is whisper-quiet; hence my system should sound as lean as it looks and operates. All told, the box is definitely a bare-bones machine with no fancy memory card ports, no multiple drives for high-end RAID configurations, and no power-plant depleting DX10 graphics cards. But, honestly, it's a PC I'd use for most everyday tasks. And, as we said before, this PC can be easily upgraded at any time to a more powerful configuration.

CPU & Motherboard: Less Is More

Ironically, you can build a green PC that's more powerful than the system you are using today. The reason: The "greenest" components available from Intel and other companies are typically their newest and most powerful. (It's a great time to be eco-friendly!) Also, when you're more selective about the parts and how much energy you use, you can build a system that is both lean and meanone that exactly meets your needs.

For this project, I wanted to build a highly usable and efficient system. My reasoning: You can build the greenest PC ever, but if you don't actually use it, you're not helping the environment. I wasn't shooting for a video-editing or gaming rig; I wanted a computer that could work well in an office, with Vista-capable specifications.

I chose the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor. This CPU runs 42 percent faster (per SYSmark 2004 SE scores) than the Intel Pentium D 960 yet consumes 40 percent less energy. According to an Intel study (available at www.intelcapabilitiesforum.net/EEP?s=9), the E6700 costs just $13.94 in energy to run every workday for a year, compared with $23.48 for the Pentium D. The CPU uses Wide Dynamic Execution (hence there are more instructions per clock cycle) and Advanced Smart Cache (to make sure that more executions are completed) and therefore uses less energy to do the same tasks.

The CPU can also enter a deep-sleep state that uses less than 5 watts or a hibernation state that uses less than 3 wattsthe best ever for Intel. Of course, performance for this $530 dual-core processor is amazingly good (better than the CPU we used in the "Best PC" rig from October of last year), yet it consumes only 65 wattsbetter than previous energy hogs.

I also chose the matching Intel DG965SS motherboard, which consumes 20 watts. This microATX board uses less energy and is less hazardous to the environment than a full ATX motherboard, partly because it's smaller and partly because it's lead-free. I didn't use a small-form-factor case, which would be more appropriate for a microATX board, mostly because the PSUs on those models are usually custom-made and not 80 Plus-certified.

The Intel board has integrated 3D graphics and surround sound, which means you can skip those expansion cards and save more energy. Another advantage is compatibility. The DG965SS supports Windows Vista out of the box and had no technical snafus: Software and hardware testing were error-free. It's just a bonus that this board supports 1-gigabit networking as well.

You can find CPUs and motherboards that are even more energy-efficient, such as those made by VIA Technologies (a company that specializes in green components), and some of those made by AMD, which has a similarly efficient CPU. But the Intel parts I used offer high performance with both energy efficiency and exceptional compatibility.

Editor's Note: Mobile chipsets like the Intel T7600 will draw less power and can be used in a desktop PC, but they also cost much more.

Building the System

1

Mount your drives.
Open the front-cover door by gently pulling on the tabs holding it closed. Remove one metal bracket. Screw the clips to the Sony drive and insert it into the open bay. Insert the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB SATA into an open HDD bay.

2

Remove the I/O shield.
Tap out the plate on the back of the case, which is designed for ATX motherboards. The Intel DG965SS motherboard comes with its own I/O shield: Snap that into place so that the ports line up correctly.

3

Prepare for the heat sink.
Install the rear bracket and screws for the Thermaltake Big Typhoon heat sink and fan on the back of the motherboard. We won't install the CPU yet, but if you skip this step, you'll have to remove the entire motherboard later.

4

Mount the motherboard.
Mount the motherboard into the Antec SOLO case. It's fairly straightforward: Screw in the gold mounting nuts (called standoffs) first. Place the motherboard over them, and then use the longer screws to hold it in place.

5

Add the power supply.
Now install the Sea Sonic S12 Energy Plus 650 power supply unit. (But don't connect the cord to the wall outlet until we're all finished!) Use the four longer screws that came with the case to secure the PSU. Leave its cables dangling for now.

6

Jumpers and buttons and ports and...
Follow the instructions that came with the motherboard to connect the case cables for front lights, power and reset buttons, USB, FireWire, and audio. Consult the Intel Express Install manual on the CD for audio connections.

7

Mount the heat sink and the CPU.
Next, install the E6700 CPU and the Big Typhoon heat sink and fan. Connect the PSU power cables, then the IDE and SATA cables, according to the instructions that came with the motherboard.

8

Install your RAM.
Snap the Crucial DDR2 RAM modules into their slotsthe open blue ones on the motherboard. Connect the USB keyboard and mouse and an Ethernet cable to the back of the PC.

9

Load Windows Vista.
Place the Vista disc into the DVD drive. By default, the Intel DG965SS motherboard will boot off a DVD, so there are no BIOS settings to configure. Load Windows Vista Ultimate, and start saving a few trees!

Get Green Accessories

For the finishing touch, I added an energy-efficient monitor to the mix. Expansive 30-inch LCDs are power hogs, consuming more than 100 watts alone. As with motherboards and hard drives, smaller is better. An older KDS K917S 19-inch LCD uses just 48 watts, which is fairly typical for a 19-inch LCD. The ViewSonic VA503B 15-inch LCD uses only 23 watts, pretty much the lowest consumption of any recent model, but I wasn't ready to squint that much, especially with Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate.

Of course any LCD is better than an older CRT, which can use 80 watts or more, depending on its size. And disposing of a CRT is much more hazardous to the environment, mostly because of the amount of lead in these older displays.

Computer keyboards and mice barely cause any environmental problems: They're usually lead-free, and they consume very little energy. For my green PC, I used the Logitech MX 3200 Cordless Desktop Laser, which squeezes a little more juice out of AA batteries than previous models did, according to Logitech. If your current keyboard and mouse are working fine, you're best off using them longer instead of buying more efficient modelsand disposing of the old ones.

There are some sacrifices I wouldn't make for green computing. The more peripherals you add, the more power you use, and the more hazardous waste you will end up dumping on the planet someday. But it's easy to take the morally conscious angle too far by never printing or faxing (on-screen viewing has its own hazards!), or by not using a router or network storage device (and living with the obvious detriments of that approach).

Yet for eco-friendliness, one approach is to use just the resources you really need. Skipping a few extra gadgets might not help sales at Best Buy (or the PC Magazine reviews team), but green computing is all about small steps towards a better world. In the end, many small steps lead to a giant leap. Perhaps if we all turn off our electronic devices when they're not in use and start using lead-free components, the world may start looking greener after all.

Windows Vista Settings

Windows Vista Ultimate lets you configure power-saving options in more ways than Windows XP did. The operating system can actually throttle performance for some tasks to save energy while you work. If you are just typing a document in Microsoft Word, performance will dwindle. If you are reading video files off a network drive and editing them in Adobe Premier Pro, Vista will use all the processing power available.

For the most energy efficiency, click the Windows icon, then Control Panel, then Power Options. Click the "Create a Power Plan" link, and select the Power Saver option. Name the plan, click Next, and select options for putting the monitor and PC to sleep after a set time period. Click Create. This setting will power down all fans and save energy, both while you work (depending on the task) and when the PC idles for too long.

The top Three Energy Offenders

1. CPU

Inside your case, the most power-draining component is the CPU. Intel has worked hard to make the processor more efficient, but the Core 2 Duo still uses about 65 watts of energy. The new Core 2 Duo Extreme will use 75 watts. VIA is well regarded as an industry leader in low-wattage processors, with some barely sipping a dozen or so watts from the power supply (but their performance suffers for it, unfortunately).

2. Graphics Card

The bad news for gamers and those with high-performance rigs is that your ATI or nVidia card is likely consuming 300 watts or more. That's why powerhouse systems need a 750-watt power supply. Fortunately, relief is on the way: Newer cards such as the nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX use only about 250 watts, depending on use. That's still too much for a green PC, though.

3. CRT Monitor

The real culprit in killing trees and causing hazardous waste is the old-school CRT, which can use more than 100 watts by itself. Many contain a lot of lead as well. You can "go green" quickly just by replacing your CRT with a 19-inch LCD, which uses about half as much power and is lead-free.

Parts List

Sony DRU-830A optical drive: $90

Antec SOLO case: $90

Sea Sonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT PSU: $160

Crucial CT2KIT12864AA80E DDR2 DIMM (2GB kit): $390

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 160GB hard drive: $70

Intel DG965SS motherboard: $130

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 CPU: $670

Thermaltake Big Typhoon heat sink and fan: $60

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate: $400

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser mouse: $100

KDS K917s 19-inch flat-panel LCD: $190

Total: $2,350

Watt Usage

Sony DRU-830A optical drive: 6 watts

Crucial CT2KIT12864AA80E DDR2 DIMM: 20 watts

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 160GB hard drive: 9 watts

Intel DG965SS motherboard: 20 watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 CPU: 65 watts

KDS K917s monitor: 48 watts

Other parts and fans: Minimal power used

Total: 168 watts

Note: The watts listed are the highest for normal operation when the component is active.